I grew up in a small house in a tropical village. Our compound was ‘L’ shaped that went round one side of our house and to the back, rather like a typical semi-detached house in suburban England. Next to our house was another house with a wide path rather than a compound next to it, [...]

When you stepped out of the back door of our house in Singapore where I lived as a child, you could either turn left and down the long line of steps to the bathroom and lower compound, or you could walk in a diagonal to your right and get to the washing lines, and then [...]

For Annette’s birthday this August we went camping. We’ve never done it before, but it turned out to be great fun. Grace came over from Italy and spent the weekend with us – we wanted to go to Lulworth Cove and stay around Wareham in Dorset but by the time we went to book a [...]

During my very first day at school, when I was almost 7, my teacher did not use my name at all. She spoke to the other pupils, but not directly to me. I could understand her when she spoke in English, but quickly picked up that there were others in the class who could not [...]

I have attended fewer than 50 gigs and concerts, so don’t claim to be an informed expert or critic in this area. My benchmark for a really good performance is an early days Bryan Adams concert. He entertains and interacts with the audience. He deals with his fans in such an intimate way that you [...]

Guitar Man, age 2

Mr Music Man, age 3

High Flyer, age 7

Face Off, age 6

First public performance – 1995

Home Jam, age 13-14

Ready to Punk and Roll – 1986

Right towards the end of my first year at school, the word “exams” was heard frequently enough around me for me to pick up that there was a solemn significance about it.

Somwhere in the middle of all this significance, I sat at my desk in Malay class. (I did Malay as a second language at [...]

They say that, if you had been around when President Kennedy was shot, you remember forever the moment that you heard that news. I was, and I do.

In November 1963, I was seven. My father, who was self-employed and who worked from home, was just outside the house. About twice or three times that morning [...]

I went with my mother one day when I was nearly ten, to visit her mother. My grandmother lived in the Chinatown area of Singapore, in a house that had, it seemed to me, a thousand rooms.

Each room was let out to tenants, and she was the landlady who threw her weight about when rent [...]

Much of Singapore’s shoreline has been altered through land reclamation, although it once resembled a hard-baked cookie cracked and crumbling at the edges and placed in a puddle of water. There used to be many inlets and rivers making their way beyond the shoreline and finding residence in basins and other low-lying areas a few [...]